Speed responds to players' association charges

For Malcolm Speed, the chief executive of the International Cricket Council (ICC), it's been a week of responding to criticisms levelled against the organisation. After hitting out at the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack and Dennis Lillee for accusing the ICC of putting commercial interests before the game itself, Speed attacked the Federation of International Cricketers' Association (FICA) for threatening to make contract negotiations more difficult for the ICC. Tim May, joint chief executive of the FICA, had warned that the FICA would take a tough stand in all future negotiations after the ICC refused to include a player representative in its management committee, but Speed suggested that the FICA should first put its house in order before criticising others.

"Rather than issuing threats against international cricket, FICA's leadership should be taking a step back and trying to understand why so many of the boards around the world are so vehemently opposed to it.

"The reality is that despite repeated recommendations from ICC management a majority of cricket boards around the world simply do not accept that FICA should be recognised. The ICC management has argued on many occasions during the past two years in favour of recognising FICA but, if anything, support for it has gone backwards amongst the countries since this issue was last considered in Sri Lanka last October."

The issue of having a player representative in the ICC management committee had been discussed in October last year, but the proposal fell through as the boards of five countries, including all four from the subcontinent, were opposed to the move. Speed pointed out this fact in responding to the FICA allegations: "Tim May in Australia and Richard Bevan in England operate from countries where player-board relationship are well-established and mature but when you listen to the people running cricket in South Africa or Sri Lanka or West Indies - all countries with player associations affiliated with FICA- you realise that there are serious issues at this level.

"Why in countries where player associations exist have the player association leadership failed to show that there is a contribution that can also be made at the ICC level? Why is it that there is so much distrust between the players and management in so many countries where there are player associations? The FICA needs to understand and answer these questions.

"Clumsy attempts to threaten or undermine all countries instead of working with the countries which are currently opposed to it will only succeed in alienating all countries and set its cause back even further."

Speed also pointed out the measures taken over the last couple of years to ensure that players had a say in every major decision taken in running the game. "The captains' meeting, the restructuring of Cricket Committee - Playing (CC-P) and the pragmatic solutions that resolved concerns ahead of the key ICC events are clear examples of the progress that is being made in ensuring the players views are represented within the ICC."

Last year's meeting of the captains of all 10 Test-playing nations resulted in the ICC issuing guidelines relating to the amount of cricket to be played each year. The CC-P, which now consists of five nominees each from the players and the full-member boards, have regularly made recommendations regarding on-field issues, the most recent being the suggestion of markings on the pitch to aid umpires in making lbw decisions.

When contacted by Wisden Cricinfo, May had no further comment to make on the issue.